Entry From FZ, Vol 5, Part 2, (1998) Author: D. Bridson
Contributor Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (K)
Resource Type Reference Sources
Information Shrub or small tree 2–10 m tall, glabrous; young stems covered with pale grey bark.Leaves turning black-brown or brown when dry; blades 2.5–13.5 × 1–7 cm, elliptic to broadly elliptic or sometimes oblong-elliptic, acute to obtuse at apex, acute to cuneate or occasionally rounded at base, stiffly papery to subcoriaceous, dull above; lateral nerves in 4–5 main pairs; tertiary nerves obscure; domatia sometimes present as tufts of hair; petiole 2–7 mm long; stipules 4–14 mm long, triangular at their base with a lobe above, caducous.Flowers hermaphrodite (or mostly so), 4-merous, borne in 4–30-flowered umbels; peduncles 2–4 mm long; pedicels 1.5–5 mm long, glabrous; bracts 2–7 mm long, acuminate.Calyx tube ± globose, c. 1 mm in diameter; limb reduced to a rim, or unequally lobed, up to 1 mm long.Corolla yellowish-cream; tube 2–3 mm long, densely congested with hairs at throat; lobes 2–2.5 × 1.25 mm, ovate-triangular, shortly apiculate.Pollen presenter 0.75–1 mm across.Fruit yellow, edible, 5–8 mm in diameter, almost globose or somewhat laterally compressed, scarcely indented at the apex.Pyrene 5.5–6 × 2–3 mm, obovoid with ventral face flattened, with a shallow crest extending around the apex, slightly rugulose.